SELI and Redesign Network to host “Leading Constructive Public Engagement” conference

SELI and Redesign Network to host “Leading Constructive Public Engagement” conference

December 30, 2003
School of Education News
By Erica Gilbertson

SUSE’s Stanford Educational Leadership Institute (SELI) and the School Redesign Network will jointly host a conference entitled “Leading Constructive Public Engagement” on January 8th and 9th on the Stanford campus. Sixteen school district teams, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, were selected to participate in the event which will address important issues in an often overlooked area of district leadership: the engagement of school district constituents and policymakers throughout the educational system.

According to conference organizers, many reform-minded district leaders have come to realize that they “can’t do it alone.” The conference goals for the 140 participants are to strengthen district support of schools, improve educational program design and implementation, promote more flexible policies, and to tap new resources and develop abroad base of support for school reforms. The 16 districts from around the country have all previously attended professional development programs at Stanford. Many attended the Executive Program for Educational Leaders last summer where they learned about the “what” and “why” of school reform.

“This conference was designed to provide continuing assistance for districts that are transforming their schools into higher performing organizations; it focuses on the “how” in the change process. Effective public engagement is crucial in building collaborative and healthy working relationships between all the stakeholders within an education system,” explained SELI Director Mo Lei.

Participants will be engaged in interactive lectures, coaching sessions, and cross-team roundtable discussions. Presenters will include nationally respected practitioners and leading faculty from SUSE and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, including SUSE Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, GSB Professor of Political Science and Leadership Values David Brady, and SUSE alumnus Steve Jubb, Executive Director of the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools.

“Leading Constructive Public Engagement” will provide:
• a rationale for public engagement with district personnel, community members, and policymakers
• frameworks for public engagement at multiple levels
• strategies for engaging multiple constituencies
• approaches for engaging intermediary organizations to support reform
• opportunities to network with other district leaders
• planning and problem-solving sessions with team members

SELI is a joint initiative of the Stanford University School of Education and the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is funded by The Goldman Sachs Foundation. The School Redesign Network is a learning collaborative at the Stanford University School of Education and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For more information, contact Michael Milliken at milliken@stanford.edu